WILDFLOWER HILLBY KIMBERLEY FREEMAN, HACHETTE AUSTRALIA, $32.99. “The worst mistake we can make about old people is to forget they were young once,” says award-winning women’s fiction writer, Kimberley Freeman. And so, in her latest novel, she heads up into the attic and opens up Grandma Beattie’s old memory box to discover a poignant chapter […]

HOMECOMINGBY CATHY KELLY, HARPERCOLLINS, $32.99. Seventy years after leaving Ireland, Eleanor Levine, now a famous psychoanalyst, returns to her homeland. She becomes drawn into the lives of three women: beautiful young actress Megan, who is in hiding after an affair became public; Rae, a pillar of the community with a secret past; and Connie, a […]

Hell On The Way To Heaven, BY CHRISSIE FOSTER WITH PAUL KENNEDY, BANTAM AUSTRALIA, $34.95. Chrissie Foster’s experience is almost beyond belief. Two of her three daughters were abused by a paedophile priest, leading to the suicide of one and the secret alcoholism of another, who was severely disabled in a drunken car accident. The […]

The Confessions Of Catherine De Medici, BY C.W. GORTNER, HODDER & STOUGHTON, $32.99. A riveting first person account of the extraordinary life of Florentine-born Caterina (Catherine) de Medici, 14-year-old bride of the 14-year-old Duke of Orleans, later crowned King Henry II of France, to whom she bore three kings among her seven children. In spite […]

Hawke: The Prime Minister, BY BLANCHE D’ALPUGET, MUP, $54.99. The most important thing to do when reading Hawke: The Prime Minister is to keep reminding yourself that it is written by his second wife, Blanche D’Alpuget. If you forget, even for a few pages, then you could be lulled into thinking he was the greatest […]

Food Fashion Friends, BY FLEUR WOOD, PENGUIN, $59.95. If you’ve yet to discover Sydney-based fashion designer Fleur Wood and her soft, slightly bohemian but always elegant sense of style, this book is a good place to start. As well as making great frocks, Wood is a fervent home cook and her passion shines through the […]

Morning TV star Melissa Doyle opens up to Bryce Corbett about her parents’ divorce, being raised by her dad and the brush with illness that caused her emotional breakdown. At the end of 2008, Sunrise presenter Melissa Doyle disappeared mysteriously from our living rooms. One morning, she was there on our TV screens, her vivacious […]

Julie Prior and Mel Gibson were teenage sweethearts. Here, she tells Michael Sheather about the five happy years she shared with the charismatic young man who became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. For Julie Prior, love’s first bloom is no romantic cliché. Tucked between the pages of a yellowed, time-worn photographic album rests the now […]

Julianne Moore loves life at almost 50. Here, she talks to Elaine Lipworth about family, career, Botox and getting older – plus her latest film, The Kids Are All Right, a family drama in which she plays a lesbian parent opposite Annette Bening. It’s 8 o’clock on a Sunday morning and Julianne Moore is exuberant […]

The $37 million sexual harassment lawsuit brought against iconic retailer David Jones has not only dented its name, but served notice on the boys club at the big end of town, writes Jordan Baker. Yet the bigger issue remains – why does harassment still happen? They’re known as the Masters of the Universe, the chummy […]